FANNY AND ALEXANDER - the opera

Our collaboration with Mikael Karlsson continous, now together with Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek. Both famous for the opera Melancholia at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm premiered in 2023.

Fanny and Alexander is a new opera by Mikael and Royce, in creative collaboration with Cinematograph. 

The performance included famous Swedish singers Anne Sofie von Otter and Loa Falkman, together with the internationally celebrated singers Thomas Hampson, Sasha Cooke, Susan Bullock, Aryeh Nussbaum-Cohen and Peter Tantsits. Conductor was Ariane Matiakh.

Directed by Ivo van Hove

The opera was performed for he first time at La Monnaie / De Munt (Brussels) in December, 2024.

MIKAEL KARLSSON

COMPOSER

A Swedish-born composer who lives and works in New York, Mikael writes music for opera, ballet, modern dance, orchestra and chamber ensembles . His music is performed frequently at festivals, opera houses and concert halls in Europe and the United States . His commissions for dance include works for The Paris Opera (Play - Ekman), The Norwegian Opera and Ballet (Rooms, A Swan Lake, Resin – Ekman; Player – Proietto), Vienna State Opera (Blanc - Proietto), the Royal Swedish Opera and Ballet (Tyll, Midsummer Night’s Dream - Ekman), etc. His first opera, The Echo Drift, premiered at the Prototype Festival in NYC in 2018.

ROYCE VAVREK

LIBRETTIST

Royce Vavrek has “shaken up the timid, backward-looking business of American opera” (The New Yorker). He has been called “an exemplary creator of operatic prose” (The New York Times) and “one of the most celebrated and sought after librettists in the world” (CBC Radio). His opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Other collaborations include extensive work with Missy Mazzoli, David T. Little, Ricky Ian Gordon, Paola Prestini, Gregory Spears, Ellen Reid, Matt Marks, and Joshua Schmidt.